(Space.com) -- The discovery last week of water ice just under the surface of
Mars has researchers buzzing, given that water is a key ingredient for life.
The finding, by the Phoenix Mars Lander, is the most recent hint that the Red
Planet might be habitable to microbes.
But in the parlance of treasure hunters in the movie "National
Treasure," this looks a lot like just another clue that will lead to other
clues, and still more clues. The big question still hangs over NASA: Is there life
on Mars? And just as important: Can NASA ever find the evidence for it?
Getting to that answer will require the right mission with the
right tools in the right places — not to mention some serious digging beyond
the capabilities of Phoenix. The next Mars missions include NASA's Mars Science
Laboratory, an SUV-sized rover set to launch in 2009, and the European ExoMars
rover that would wield a drill capable of digging 6.5 feet (2 meters) down. It
is set to launch in 2013.
NASA has long taken an incremental approach to searching for
biology, with "follow the water" as a driving strategy. That means,
perhaps to the frustration of some, that the current Phoenix lander mission and
the twin rovers on Mars are not even designed
to detect Martian life.
So current and near-future missions may not directly look for
life, scientists say, but they will likely turn up more pieces to the puzzle of
Mars and where extraterrestrial life may thrive.
more
Last update : 01-08-2008 18:12
|
|
|
Keywords : extraterrestrial, capabilities, frustration, incremental, laboratory, scientists, important, searching, approach, designed, directly, european, evidence, missions, national, parlance, strategy, treasure, another, biology, capable, digging, driving, exomars, getting, |
Users' Comments  |
|
Average user rating
 (0 vote)
|
|
Add your comment
|
WNT Selected 
Tags
